Improvements

I was so pleased this week! Three people in the conversation group at the library said they had noticed a marked improvement in my Spanish in the time since I quit school. So it looks like I made the right choice! Of course clearing the things that were aggravating the dyslexia helped immensely too. Although it took a couple of weeks, I'm now starting to remember much of what I learned in class.

Yo soy un person quien necesitar un sistema para aprender algo nuevo. En clase, no tenemos un sistema utilizable. Es la consecuencia del libro que no es organizó bien. La primera cosa que realicé fue que era necesario para aprender todos los tiempos del verbos. Después desarrollé dos sistemas, uno que usó cuentos para aprender vocabulario y una que usó los posición del manos aprender todos los tiempos del verbos. Además, aprendí un sistema para organizar todos los palabras en grupos y un otro sistema para agrupar verbos, sustantivos, objetos, y adjetivos para aprender cuatro palabras por la precio de uno. Estudié mucho.

Of course I still have much to learn. I needed to use imtranslator.com to check my spelling on the above--if you don't speak Spanish you can just go there and copy and paste the above paragraph. I still have significant problems with my dyslexia, but what a difference! Spanish is starting to be fun again and at first I studied many hours a day because my system was so interesting. Maybe someday I'll write a book called "Learn Spanish Like a Kid".


Unfortunately my tutor didn't show up for our second meeting. I was concerned that the interference was starting again because a common pattern was for people to disappear from my life for no reason. But luckily when I went to do some shamanic work on my friend Wendy she was finishing up with a tutor just as I arrived. Since Wendy was leaving in a week, I made arrangements to use the same tutor when she left for a very inexpensive price. I did miss my first tutor though as she was very good. I wondered what happened to her as she hasn't shown up at any library conversations either. I thought I may have done something wrong because she was quite touchy feely with me and had invited me to go play basketball afterwards. Maybe I should have given her a kiss to make sure she showed up again? Connie help me here. I don't pretend to understand women in general, but Mexican women are even more of a mystery.

The shamanic work with Wendy went so well that she recommended me to a friend. I said that I was only giving freebies to the healing group and that her friend would have to pay but that was no problem. Her friend had a lot of faith in me, saying "I just know you can help me." She was right and we had a fantastic session. We cleared many soul problems and some physical problems and she looked very different when we were done. She was so happy she gave me a beautiful painting.

A week ago I went back to the state capitol with my friend David who I knew from the class in university. He has a car so we drove this time. Luckily he also has excellent navigation karma and we found the correct exit from the tunnels and a place to park with no problem whatsoever (it was a little like traveling with Jeff). We spent a great day in the city, and it was even better than the one I'd spent with Cesar on the tour. We went into the classic theatre, explored the university, returned to the Diego Rivera museum, had a great lunch on a large quiet square surrounded by restaurants, and explored the old market that was built in a train station that was never used. But one of my favorite times was when we were in an art gallery and I went over to the supervisor to chat about the meaning of a shoe sculpture. David was impressed with my Spanish but I said I still need to direct the conversations and interrupt with a statement of my own when the other person becomes unintelligible. It was an interesting story behind the shoe exhibit though: the shoes were all found on the subway in Mexico City and were intended to be a snapshot of the type of people who rode the subway. Overall we were thrilled with the trip and David thanked me for suggesting it. Unfortunately I forgot my camera that day.

The next day I met up with Cesar's group to tour the capitol of the neighbouring state. (I'd actually gone back during the week to hear Cesar's history lecture again and take notes). It was a smaller group this time and this city was more low-key. In fact it reminded me of some of the American small cities that Jeff and Dan and I used to drive through. The only problem was that some of the locals spoke to us or shouted at us as if they were making fun of us. (The one that bothered me was when they said "how do you do" in an exaggerated American accent so I answered them in Spanish). But we still had an excellent time, and when we were sipping tequila on the drive home there was a big hail storm that lasted so long it looked like there was snow on the ground. Canadians will say "you call that snow?" but in Mexico it's very unusual. Someone kidded Cesar that he had arranged the storm to end the tour with a bang.

A beautiful plaza.	A colonial monastery.
Sculptures in a local museum.	The colonial architecture in the museum, taken from a beautiful plaza with a fountain.
This looks like an American-style street to me.	Hailstorm on the bus!